The sun was cresting over the horizon and the Kabuki roundabout was hustling even this early in the morning.

People were always looking for the best deals, or trying to find that next sucker to sell some garbage. The ebb and flow of the early morning crowds were like a tide of consumers. I began struggling to path my way through the clumps of folks while searching for the best shops to off load my illicit goods.

I'm no novice when it come to wheeling and dealing, but I didn't get the better end of the exchanges here. These Kabuki merchants were sharks, very hungry ones. I lost a few chucks of flesh in there. Metaphorically, of course. Though there was one guy who looked like he had actual shark teeth in his mouth. Weird choice, but it takes all kinds.

Clearing out my Galena of all the loot had netted me another 3000 eddies. I had thought I could do better, but was soon disabused of that notion. Checking around had reveled I ended up losing more than 20% at almost every sale, and thus was a little disillusioned. I had parked my butt on a concrete bench, while I moped a bit and just watched as the city was coming alive. I was also eating a second helping of a fairly good noodle dish I had found. The food cart was super popular with the locals, and long lines gathered for their dishes. That's why I decided to try it out in the first place. Glad I did. Best meal I'd had since I'd gotten to this city. The bits and bobs mixed into the noodles could have been anything, and I certainly wasn't going to ask. The long bits of carbohydrates tasted like they were made with real flour. They had a great texture too.

Once my stomach was tamed, I took a count of my funds. Let's see about $15,000 altogether, not quite enough to pay off the Doc. We'd have to go hunting again tonight. Maybe, this time I'd just let the Probes do the hunting. It felt bad to even think about doing it that way, but it was the smarter play. I had already been shown that I didn't have the best natural instincts for combat. I'd have to train. One more thing on my plate. Sigh.

I needed to buy some armor, but later, after I had a chance to refresh my brain. I'd get bamboozled right now. Exhaustion, might be why I got my ass handed to me by those crafty merchants. For now, it was time to head south and find a hotel. Something nice and quiet, somewhere out of the way.

As I got up to head back to the Galena, the sheer amount of advertisements everywhere around me harshly intruded on my attention. There were ads everywhere; on screens, on holos, on billboards, and posters. Most of them featured sex, in all the most glorious and profane ways of fucking humanity. Which in and of itself, didn't bother me too much, after all, most people are interested in hanky panky, of one type or another. I was worried a little about all the kids who had to be seeing this slop all the time.

Blah, when you cut it to the bone, most of what was twisting me up, was that I felt horribly alone. Isolated. Throwing sex in your face when you felt lonely sucked. It made you feel even more cut off from others. Look at all these hot people, having all that great sex, didn't you wish that was you? Add the backdrop of the dreary concrete jungle all around you, and every ad just sapped more of your soul.

This was all on purpose wasn't it?

Shit, I really needed a girlfriend, an "output" I think it was called. Or maybe the term was "Mainline" for something more serious. Sure, I'll keep an eye out for a good woman, perhaps thenI'd be more resistant to this soul draining mess.

My wandering thoughts kept me focused inwards, until I was once again behind the wheel of my car. Driving on the highway, almost free of crazy motorists at this hour, worked its magic on me and my tension started to fall away. This was a welcome moment, that I maybe drug out longer than I had to, but a little peace of mind was never a waste.

Down in a section of the city called Heywood, I found a Hotel tucked away deep in some sketchy back roads. The El Gato que Ríe. It looked like it had recently been rebuilt. From what disaster, I didn't dare begin to guess. The building was 20 floors of clean brick and newly painted accents. Nothing about the way it looked would have lead you to believe it was a Hotel. Which is what caught my attention in the first place. They likely didn't have too many folks staying there, that didn't already know about the place.

I left Scuff to watch the car, while Fix accompanied me to play bodyguard. I examined all the graffiti in the neighborhood, some of which I'd call Streetart, while walking over to the building. Hispanic influenced culture was everywhere in this part of the city. no sign of the Maelstrom anywhere nearby. Perfect.

Sadly, I didn't speak a word of Spanish. Always meant to learn, just never found the time. Still, the nice Lady at the desk didn't seem to mind, as she chattered at me in Spanish, while I paid for my room key card. It seemed to be a hundred for a day. At least I thought it was, she was talking so fast. I had the feeling that even if I did speak the language, she'd be hard to follow. I just smiled at her and tried to look attentive.

Giving her a once over, showed that her arms were chrome. They were done up with gold plating and her overly unblemished skin was covered in intricate tattoos. I thought she might have said that her name was Rosita. Her dark hair, probably also some kind of augment, bounced a lot. It especially wobbled a lot when she moved her head in a synced rhythm with her speech.

She appeared to like the sound of my name and kept rolling the r like she found it highly amusing. To be fair, she could have been saying the most vile shit to me, and I wouldn't have had a clue. But her demeaner was friendly and cheerful. Interesting side note she could see Fix, but I had a feeling that was because their stealth wouldn't work during the day.

When I finally got into my room it was about 7:30 AM. The room was nothing special, by my standards, and looked like dozens of other hotel rooms I had throughout my life, other than the tech. Fix immediately started scanning everything, that even remotely looked like it might be electronic.

I tried to take a shower but it wouldn't start. You had to pay, I finally noticed the sign on the sidewall after a couple of frustrating minutes. Not having much choice I did my best with the sink, and a wash cloth. The sink also cut off after a few minutes of use. Fucking hell. I finished up awkwardly, before walking back towards the bed.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Feeling minimally better, I laid down and was off to dreamland in seconds.

Getting up was a struggle, hundreds of little aches and pains trying to weight me back down. There was still sunlight peering around the edges of the steel shutters. A small readout near the bed, showed the temp 102F / 39C. The date was 3/21/2074 and the time read 4:41PM. That seemed unreasonably hot for March, in California, especially by the coast. Though maybe that's normal for here and now.

I wanted to brush my teeth really badly, argh. It was a mess in there. I'd have to remember to grab some toiletries and other necessities later. I tried a quick cast of Regrowth, which while helping with the soreness, didn't do a thing to fight plaque. I had to resort to scrubbing at my teeth with a clean hand towel. It wasn't perfect, but it did cut the fuzzy feeling on my teeth down.

I checked out, Fix trailing along behind me, and told Rosita that I'd be happy to stay again sometime. I knew she could understand me. Now that I had slept, I remembered that Sinnamin had told me that the Net implant could translate language in real time. She said a bunch, her head bobbing everywhere. I actually felt bad that I didn't understand a word of it. Her smile at least, was a bright point to start the day with.

When we got to the car, Scuff reported that nothing had happened on his watch. We loaded up and headed out.

I drove around aimlessly, just taking in the sites in this part of the city. I avoided going too much farther south. Sinnamin had warned me about places called Pacifica and Dogtown down that way.

I decide to fill up at a CHOOH2 station, which also had a setup like a convenience store. The Burning Grass, a chain store it seemed. I got the sense that the name was a joke that I didn't get yet. They were open 24/7 and had four active gun turrets hanging from the pump area's awning, they tracked my car when I had pulled in. Soon a bot came out and pumped the fuel. The bot seemed like an evolution of the Boston Dynamics line of humanoid work bots. It should also be noted that the bot was armed.

Scuff and Fix were scanning everything they could, while staying attached to the car. None of us wanted a misunderstanding with the turrets. I got out and walked over to the sales shack. I noticed only one of the turrets track my movements. I got a Cirrus Cola and a XXL burrito, which was disappointingly small. The Bot behind the counter handed me my order and took a few of my bills. Once the bot pumping gas was finished, it gave me back my change. I blanched a little at the prices. Whew, I guess I was just going to have to get used to the cost of living here.

The cola was meh, and the burrito was aggressively mediocre. Truly it was a mass of almost tasteless mush. Still had Buck A Slice beat though.

I walked back to my car keeping one eye on the turrets and the other on the bots. I didn't feel secure again until we were a few hundred yards down the road.

Next it was time to find a weapon store. I wanted to get a holster rigged up for my Omaha, get some range practice and buy some freaking armor. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be gun stores were literally everywhere. I found one called the Reach Out and Touch Someone Shop. Stopping there, I got a nice new armored vest and layered an armored trench coat over it. Not too heavy, but the clerk said it should stop most rounds that I'd meet on the streets. I also purchased a nice gun belt and holster with a couple of hours of range time.

[Adjusting...]

[ Militech Trench Coat with Bullet Resistant Triweave

Armor: 3 ]

[ Norco Armored Vest with Polycarbonate Plating

Armor: 4 ]

Oh man, that was fun! I had a grand old time blasting away at a large variety of targets. I even got to try the moving target trial. I didn't do so hot, but I did gain a little something for my efforts.

[ Firearms skill has increased to Rank 2 ]

It was around 8:30PM when I left the Reach Out and Touch Someone Shop and the balmy night was young. When checking my funds, I saw I was down to $10,456 after my earlier purchases.

As I was walking to my car, I saw a man across the street by what I would have said was an abandoned building. Nothing usual except he was wearing a holographic mask. According to Sinnamin's lectures he matched the description of a Scav. Like the 'Strom, they were bad folks that like to cut people up and take their bits. Also like the Maelstrom they wouldn't be missed. In fact, she had made clearing out Scavs sound like a public service.

With the dark the Probes were once again protected by stealth. It made it less troublesome for Fix to track him back to his source. Scuff and I followed at a more leisurely pace with the car. Turned out that the Probes could keep track of each over quite a distance. So we didn't have to stay too close to the target. This was a great time for testing things like this. We were under no major pressures right at that moment and if we lost track of the Scav we weren't set back at all.

Later, Fix had back tracked to us. He had discovered the location of the base. It was in a very rundown area. I'd label it, urban blight incarnate. Unsurprisingly, It was there that I saw my first living rat of this world. The stunted critter had been twisted up, whether through some deliberate action or an accident, I couldn't say. I threw a Regrowth on it out of pity, and shockingly it died immediately. The sheer relief from its agony, caused it to go into stress induced cardiac arrest. That raised all kinds of bothersome questions. I might have been able to save it, if I had even considered that healing it fast might not be the best way.

The stench of this zone was pervasive and nauseating. The few people still outside were homeless and feral looking. Or they were moving at a brisk pace to get out of here. The building Fix indicated was maybe thirty stories tall, though half of it was looked like it had been recently bombed. Rubble mixed freely with the ubiquitous trash piles. The people, even the hard-bitten looking ones avoided the place, which ironically was a good sign for our purposes.

The plan was simple the Probes go in, and kill the strongest or best equipped Scavs first. Taking them out as quickly and quietly as possible and then driving the rest of them towards the entrance, where I would shoot them as they came out.

I posted up in a recessed hollow in the rubble, hoping I wouldn't be easily spotted. Scuff and Fix quickly vanished into the building. Several minutes later, I heard the sound of combat coming from above. I had started to sweat, even though I was feeling some chills. People began to run out of the building, but none of them had a mask on so I let them go, I didn't want to "zero" a non-Scav by mistake.

Then my first customer of the night showed up. He never even noticed me as I took careful aim and drilled him right through the temple, at point blank range. Some of the other folks, who were milling about trying to figure out what the hell was going on, screamed and ran further away.

Two more Scavs came out. They saw their comrade, they said something in a language I didn't understand, but thought was Slavic in origin. When they crouched down over their comrade, I thought they were trying to help him. Turned out that they were stealing his weapon, shards and money. My eyes narrowed in disgust, and I put a bullet in the back of each of their heads. Fucking Scum.

After another ten minutes, all of the sounds of fighting in the building had stopped. The Probes beeped loudly from the upper windows, trying to get my attention. They seemed particularly excited. I waved up at them in acknowledgement, but I stripped everything off the three corpses down here. I figured if I left the loot out in the open, someone might come along and help themselves. I threw everything into the trunk, without really examining it now. I'd sort it later.

Now it was time to see what the Probes had found.